Arts council presents Maria in the Shower

The group Maria in the Shower will perform their folk-music sound at the high school gym.

The Mountain Home Arts Council will present Maria in the Shower on Friday, April 11, at 7 p.m. in the Mountain Home High School gymnasium.

Maria in the Shower is a folk cabaret "with passion, an original revival of energetic swing, rootsy blues, haunting four-part vocal harmony and unmitigated magic," an arts council spokesperson said.

Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $5 for students. They are available at Lucky Perk and at the door.

Vancouver's favorite vaudevillian quartet is described as a band that "embraces contradiction wholeheartedly. The band revels in the fun and challenge of making old music feel new, writing and performing material that is as fresh as it is traditional.

"Simultaneously humorous and apocalyptic, human and otherworldly, these four young men have the entertaining power of a traveling circus with musical depth to back it up in spades."

Described as "part Vaudeville, part cabaret, part punk and part folk" (Vancouver Sun), their musical approach is a "simple but potent alchemy, marrying traditional folk and jazz with lyrics that explore fundamental human questions and delivering it with pure fun and energy."

With more than 250 performances in the past three years, these showmen have won the hearts of cities and communities across Western and Northern Canada.

Highlights include: Kaslo Jazz Etc Fest, Yellowknife Folk on the Rocks, Komasket Music Festival, Atlin Arts and Music Fest, North Country Fair, Robson Valley Music Fest, Sled Island Music Fest, Brandon Folk Festival, Kispiox Valley Music Fest, Calgary Jazz Festival, Vancouver Fringe Festival, and over a dozen municipal arts councils and folk andjazz societies across British Columbia and Alberta.

Maria in the Shower has shared the stage with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Fred Penner, Veda Hille, Tanya Tagaq, Ken Whiteley, Jim Byrnes, Geoff Berner, Cadence Weapon, Frazey Ford, Digging Roots, Bernard Adamus and many others.

The Maria in the Shower concert is sponsored by the Mountain Home Arts Council, and supported through funding by WESTAF, Home Federal Bank, the Idaho Commission of the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, select Mountain Home businesses and contributions from local citizens.

For more information about the Mountain Home Arts Council or this event, go to its Facebook page, its website at www.mharts.org, or call the arts council office at 587-3706.